Elysian Shadows

Hi I'm new to this forums, I'm here because I watched all Adventures in game development series and I'm glad what there are people like Falco out there... Best wishes to you guys.. Ans sorry If I write something stupid.
Sorry about spelling in topic title...

Although I have programmed for SDL over month and created Tic Tac Toe I still have a dream of creating C++ RPG (it is not my favourite genre, but for text based game it fits perfectly), and i mean not 300 lines of code project, I want to do big RPG from scratch with all cool things - combat system, storyline, text command processing and etc. I think this is not easy project, it will be real challenge to me cause I have programmed for several years, but i did big "not coding" periods in my programming "career", so to sum up I have programmed over year, but It is actually good idea to come back from SDL (just started, next week I plan to create Pong )to text based console? Although, I'm planning to do this after 2 or 3 weeks, cause i must to create pong in SDL first. So, basically it is my dream... What do you think about it, and it is worth doing it? Maybe I will strenghten my C++ knowledge, cause I'm not planning to do some most obviuos beginner stuff, actually I want to create whole world and system, firstly I'm planning to go in design phase and this phase will took "some" time. What's all. Thank you. :rolleyes:

I hope it may not sound silly, it is just my little dream....

PLEASE READ IT ||||
P.S I'm very curiuos about learning scripting and embedding it in my C++ code, I want to try Lua, but i don't know where to start... Can you give me helping hand?
I have a really silly dream what i can implement my scipts (most likely Lua) in this console RPG game, just curiuos to learn how to do it... Maybe I can edit storyline , enemy and item stats and other various things with scripting...

P.S. Other way of doing it - I can also implement simple graphics in console just to represent map, highlight player choise, show stats, show this in different colors, for this i would create some sort of drawing engine, does windows have capability of doing this? I heard what <windows.h> have all needed function... Have any ideas about it, it would really nice to avoid just white text on black screen....

P.S.
Storyline could be based on cyberpunk theme... Just thinking know. And definately it might have plenty of classes :D

Hey and welcome to the forums!
First: Don't try to do something this big at the very beginning.
Start small and work your way up. Like you already said, doing Pong,TicTacToe maybe even Tetris is great for beginning - so stick with it and work your way up.
I know, it may sound easy to do "just a console rpg", but trust me, it isn't as easy.
Saying this, I don't want to insult you (or say that your ideas are crap), I basically want you to avoid a very common mistake that most of the new game developers are doing.

Second: Read this, it should help: http://lazyfoo.net/articles/article01/index.php

So, keep your idea at the back of your head and do it when you are actually read for it.

That would be interesting to see and RPG and even Pong in a console window.

There's nothing wrong with having a dream. I just suggest not biting off more than you can chew. I fell into the trap of diving straight into coding an RPG after Pong. The code became messy after a while. Developing a rpg and even pong game is unheard of to my ears. I wish you the best of luck!

I think recklessly throwing yourself at an RPG project can be a great learning experience so long as you a) have a lot of patience and do not become frustrated easily and b) are willing to admit, and fix, the mistakes you will inevitably make. The most important part of game development is passion. Without passion, it will be very difficult to succeed.

So I can do this in future, and what about scripting? where to start?

Learning C++ programming is not the same as learning to program games. Games have their own 'rules' and techniques that you might never encounter with general C++ coding. Writing games is a whole other skill, and it transcends programming languages. People who spent their youth programming games in BASIC tend to get further because the only way to learn game programming is to program games. Personally, I don't think it's a good idea to make an RPG in C++ your first bit project, but that's no reason not to be productive.

Why not make a SmashTV style zombie shooter?, with a tile sheet map, animated enemies, player collision... and that knowledge would be very useful when making your main game idea. Smaller projects that cover the aspects you need are a great way to learn - nobody programs things right first time every time, the more you do, the easier it is. There's always LusikkaMage, who has some great tutorials for this stuff. You could also consider learning a higher level game-centric language, like DarkBasicPro. The reason why people use C/C#/C++ these days instead of assembler is that higher level languages are fast enough, PC's get faster all the time - it's at the point now where most indi games will run on most PC's. You could do a couple of smaller games in BASIC to get more used to game programming, and then when you do get back to C++, you could use the BASIC language for making editors and test code. A 2D RPG will run on anything with no problems.
My current project is being written in DarkBasicPro on the PC, and C++ on iOS... but my point is that both games use the same editor, same visuals, same level files, and the game logic is the same. I was able to jump right into iOS coding because of my experience with making games in BASIC. With no prior C++ experience I got to work on my game, and am able to apply the same tricks and techniques.

I would hate to be in your position, if I can say that without it sounding terrible. Ideas that just won't quit, and absolutely no obvious route to make them happen. I suggest grabbing DBPro (there is a free version) because that will let you try your ideas and develop them organically, C++ needs a decent amount of thought and planning - know what you need to do and how to do it before applying it to your main RPG project. Establish a work flow that suits you and gets results - my last 2 games are the product of test code that I wrote in the space of a couple of hours - if you can proove the concept quickly, then your onto a good idea.

As for LUA - well you should probably disregard it at this stage. When you get to the point that you need it, you should be able to make LUA an option - either use LUA, or another scripting standard, or make your own script system. Right now I think you need to do something to get the ball rolling, like look into tile sheet maps and characters - a test bed for further developments. With an RPG project there will be lots of dry, boring coding - it's always nice to have visual stuff to work on at the same time.

what vanb said is all awesome, just dont make any more zombie games please

I would also add : do you have all the skills needed to make your game ?
can you do -
collision detection - if your pong game is a success, that means you at least have the basics of this.
keep in mind collision detection can get a whole lot more complicated than pong
scoring functions
health / mana/ ammo classes
tileset, tilesheet loaders
level editor (or at least some way to save levels out to a txt file or something)
enemies
npc's and dialog
modal windows

the list goes on....

But you don't get it, it is not my first project in C++, I already have done bunch of SDL applications, SDL Tic Tac Toe, Console fighting game, console Tic Tac Toe, and I already are comfortable with Collision Detection, Timing and other things in SDL and in many topics in C++ such as classes, polymorphism, inheritance, pointers, lists and etc. And this game could be in plain text, player might just use text commands to play.

But I don;t need collision detection, tilesheets or level editor now - it is text- based game in console, not 2D graphical RPG

kaktusas2598 wrote:But I don;t need collision detection, tilesheets or level editor now - it is text- based game in console, not 2D graphical RPG

Yeah I don't think the others read your first post correctly. I honestly think you should just give it a go and see what comes of it.

dandymcgee wrote:

kaktusas2598 wrote:But I don;t need collision detection, tilesheets or level editor now - it is text- based game in console, not 2D graphical RPG

Yeah I don't think the others read your first post correctly. I honestly think you should just give it a go and see what comes of it.

Thanks, but really the thing what is bugging me right out except of course this game idea, is the word "Lua" , I think I'm capable of learning it, but where to start...?

I seen book on scripting called "Game Scripting Mastery", maybe it would be oo start... http://www.amazon.com/Scripting-Mastery ... 745&sr=8-1

Ahh sorry, I didn't realise you wanted to make a console window, text based game through choice! - I thought you were dismayed at how to start a bigger game project.

My point still stands about dull coding though - maybe it's worth considering using SDL, just to give bitmap fonts and some colour to proceedings. I think it would be very cool to have Fallout3 style text displays, like the hacking section. That sort of stuff would make for great puzzles in a cyberpunk game. Consoles are not very retro or attractive - even just having a more modern font would make a difference IMO. I'm just thinking about your sanity

Van-B wrote:Ahh sorry, I didn't realise you wanted to make a console window, text based game through choice! - I thought you were dismayed at how to start a bigger game project.

My point still stands about dull coding though - maybe it's worth considering using SDL, just to give bitmap fonts and some colour to proceedings. I think it would be very cool to have Fallout3 style text displays, like the hacking section. That sort of stuff would make for great puzzles in a cyberpunk game. Consoles are not very retro or attractive - even just having a more modern font would make a difference IMO. I'm just thinking about your sanity

But it is good Idea for now to code it in console and then i will be more experienced in SDL or maybe I will start learing Open GL later for advanced rendering I will be able to port it from console

Yeah, before long you'll know if your game needs more visual stuff or if it can get by with just the console interface. String handling can be a pain in C++, so sticking with the console during development makes sense. I guess what I'm thinking of is a replacement for the console, like your own custom console with retro quirks like amber screens, smooth fonts, scanlines etc - mainly because I think people would be more likely to play that, than something with a plain console window.

When I can add some simple colors or graphics in console... Maybe windows.h can handle that?